20th January 1941 – compulsory fire watching duty introduced in Great Britain. All shops and office buildings had at all times to be attended and, at night or in any ‘red alert’ there had to be a ‘Roof Warden’ on duty.
As an employee of Beales, in Bournemouth, Chotie had to take her turn at night-time fire watching on the roof. Beales was later destroyed by bombing on 23rd May 1943, in the worst attack on Bournemouth during the war.
Rye Cottage, Marine Parade West
Lee-on-Solent, Hants.
My Darling,
I'm writing as I promised as soon as possible to let you know that I arrived safely - but only just. I got to Southampton at 8 o'clock and then the trouble started. I didn't get back to camp until 3 o'clock this morning. There was a terrific Blitz on* and we had to wait on the station from 8.15 until 12.30! However the train eventually came and we reached Fareham, at about 2.30. Here I met with some luck as there was a naval lorry going back to the camp. It dropped me about a hundred yards from my billet.
I had to go on Guard at 7 o'clock this morning so I didn't get much sleep - and if anyone catches me asleep to-night I'm for a court-martial. What a life!
Still I mustn't grumble as my little wife is all that really matters in this heartless world. (Another proposal!) I must really get down to this proposal business when I get back in civvies...You're not going to get out of it as easily as you think...
I felt terrible this morning, Darling. It's pretty chronic when you get back from leave and haven't anyone you can call a friend in the whole company. Apart from Clive there isn't one man whom I could ever get to know or like.
Well, Sweetheart, I've just had supper, (2 zeppelins in a cloud**) and feel at ease once again.
I hope you got back from Bmth all right - and please Darling, do look after yourself, whatever you do. You'll never know how really precious you are to me. I just can't help thinking of you the whole time here.
I don't think I've ever felt so terribly depressed and lonely as I did this morning. Cho Darling, I don't know what you must be thinking about me after coming home and being so terribly cold. I suppose it's not my fault really, but I can't adapt myself to home life in a few hours. I worry too much I suppose.
Whatever happens, the next time I get home we must go to the Shipwrights’ or Norfolk*** or somewhere and get completely blotto. At any rate I'll be home earlier next time, which will mean we can at least go somewhere in the evening.
Well, Darling I must close here as the Orderly Officer is due any moment,
night, night Precious
All yours
“Dicker”
* Southampton was the one of the most heavily bombed cities (7th) in Britain during WW2. As Britain’s number one military port and the home of Spitfire production, just across the Channel from northern France, it was an obvious target.
** Army slang for canteen sausages in mash.
*** The Shipwrights Arms was a pub on Poole Quay (demolished in 1978). Dick had taken Chotie there before the war, much to her mother’s horror. Pubs in Poole were then almost exclusively a male preserve and Chotie’s family were teetotal – even Chotie had signed ‘the Pledge’ - "We agree to abstain from all liquors of an intoxicating quality whether ale, porter, wine or ardent spirits, except as medicene.”
“My mother tore off down to the Williams’ house after she found out Dicker had taken me to a pub. I had not even been in the bar but had played skittles and drunk one grapefruit juice”. From ‘Grandma’s Story’ written for Chotie’s grandchildren. However another version of ‘Chotie’s Story’ has Dicker “sneaking me into pubs, taboo with my family in those days”!
There was little other social life besides the pubs during the war and, with war work giving many women more independence, pubs were soon frequented by both sexes.
*** The Norfolk is still a fine Edwardian Hotel near the centre of Bournemouth.
© Chotie Darling
January 22nd 1941 - British and Australian forces capture the port of Tobruk, Libya from Italy.
22nd to 25th January 1941 – German minelaying off the Dorset coast.
Last week of January 1941 – the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Worth Matravers commandeered the BBC’s pre-war television transmitter, at Alexandra Palace in London, to jam the newly refined German radio beam system for night time location of English targets.
(From ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing Company 2004).
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